Council Tax Domesday plan for town

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WARRINGTON has been carved up into 24 localities as part of a 21st century “Domesday Book” plan to revalue Council Tax, according to a local campaigner.
People living in “nicer” parts of the borough – judged by crime and traffic levels, lifestyles of local residents, etc – will have to pay higher council tax, according to David Mowat, Prospective Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Warrington South.
He said: “There is now cast-iron evidence that Gordon Brown’s tax inspectors are preparing for council tax revaluation increases after the next General Election.
“Labour Ministers have literally developed a 21st Century Domesday Book – and have carved up Warrington into anonymous ‘localities’ for taxation.
“Family homes which enjoy lower rates of crime, less traffic or a friendlier community, compared to the national average, now face the prospect of higher taxes.
“Council Tax is already at record levels thanks to Gordon Brown. A Conservative Government will scrap Labour’s plans for Council Tax revaluation, and free up central funds to help local councils freeze Council Tax bills.”
Mr Mowat (pictured) said the Government plan to target “nice” areas for higher Council Tax had been revealed in a leaked Powerpoint presentation.
He said Government surveyors and tax inspectors had secretly divided England into 10,000 neighbourhoods, including 24 in Warrington, as part of the Council Tax revaluation plan.
After the revaluation, Council Tax bills will be based on the “niceness” of the community and the character and lifestyles of the people who live in a neighbourhood.
Each neighbourhood had been given a ‘value significance’, which had been fed into the Government’s Council Tax revaluation database – the Automated Valuation Model.
He said: “Using complex mathematical calculations, nice neighbourhoods will end up being hit with higher council tax bills.”
Lifestyle data would be used to differentiate between neighbourhoods with “student flats” or “single parents” and those with “retired home owners” or “farming communities”.
The revaluation database would be able to distinguish between a “local authority housing estate” next to a “privately built housing estate.”
Each neighbourhood would be given a six digit ID number – but no name.
Mr Mowat said the Government had refused to publish maps and boundaries of individual neighbourhoods on grounds the information was “commercially sensitive” but had admitted the maps and values were being updated and refined frequently.
In 2005, when the Government undertook Council Tax revaluation in Wales, four times as many homes moved up a band as moved down.


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Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.

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  1. Well, judging by the amount spent on congestion causing traffic lights which have driven up levels of traffic, there should be very few having council tax increases shouldn’t there..

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